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237th out of 476 books
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The Folding Star
The 1995 Booker Prize finalist finally back in print.
Alan Hollinghurst’s hypnotic and exquisitely written novel tells the story of Edward Manners, a disaffected 33-year-old who leaves England to earn his living as a language tutor in a Flemish city. Almost immediately he falls in love with one of his pupils, but can only console himself with other, illicit affairs. With t...more
Alan Hollinghurst’s hypnotic and exquisitely written novel tells the story of Edward Manners, a disaffected 33-year-old who leaves England to earn his living as a language tutor in a Flemish city. Almost immediately he falls in love with one of his pupils, but can only console himself with other, illicit affairs. With t...more
Paperback, 437 pages
Published
October 3rd 2005
by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
(first published 1994)
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With this, Alan Hollinghurst becomes my favorite living novelist. For me the phrase means a feeling of excitement about what someone will write in the future, what new domains of experience they’ll claim. Martin Amis and Edmund White do not evoke this feeling any longer, though I revere them; Updike did, if in his last decade only journalistically. I enjoyed Updike’s testimony as a still-acute American elder, his comments on epoch-defining public events—-9/11, the historic election of an African...more
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Okay, I just re-read The Folding Star after coming across a review that interpreted the ending entirely differently than I did. Can anyone share with me what they thought happened to Luc?
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I was reassured by the fact that this book landed on the Carmen Callil and Colm Toibin Modern Library list of Best Novels in English from 1950-1998. To see the complete list click on the link: http://www.listsofbests.com/list/27388-c...
It is an unusual list. There are a lot of books on the list that I hadn't read and more than I thought possible that I haven't even heard of. To say the least it is an intriguing list. I really enjoyed Colm Toibin's novel about Henry James called T...more
It is an unusual list. There are a lot of books on the list that I hadn't read and more than I thought possible that I haven't even heard of. To say the least it is an intriguing list. I really enjoyed Colm Toibin's novel about Henry James called T...more
Dazzling, funny, stylish, sexy, unputdownable, heart-breaking, unforgettable. Alan Hollinghurst is the greatest writer alive. Wikipedia says 'The New York Review of Books described it thus: "You could read this novel as a miniature Remembrance of Things Past. Or as an expanded Death in Venice... or as a homosexual Lolita.... It is an immense pleasure to read, [filled with] funniness and poetry, handled with amazing sensitivity and accuracy." Peter Kemp, Times Literary Supplement critic...more
Well, I just wrote a scathing review of this book that was lost.
Summary:
HATED IT
Hated the narrator
Hated the sub plot about the Belgian artist
Hated the object of the narrator's affection
Hated that every man in the book, no matter how odd, turned out to be into having gay sex in the woods with anyone who walked by.
Hated that every woman in teh book was either in love with a gay man, stealing straight men from gay men or only around to nurse t...more
Summary:
HATED IT
Hated the narrator
Hated the sub plot about the Belgian artist
Hated the object of the narrator's affection
Hated that every man in the book, no matter how odd, turned out to be into having gay sex in the woods with anyone who walked by.
Hated that every woman in teh book was either in love with a gay man, stealing straight men from gay men or only around to nurse t...more
The story of a pronouncedly gay man who spends the majority of his time having sex, thinking about sex, wanting sex, and specifically wanting sex with one specific individual with whom he falls in love almost instantaneously. Homosexuality almost takes over the entire book, with multiple ostensibly heterosexual characters revealing homosexual tendencies or histories and attempting to have sex with the narrator. The book wants to be about the all-consuming nature of sexual desire, expressed thro...more
Several years ago, I happened to pick up a paperback copy of Alan Hollinghurst's Swimming Pool Libraries at a used book store. It is deeply (mostly homo-) erotic and funny and an overall great read. Years later I passed it on to a couple of friends who enjoyed it as much as I did. My naughty book club was born. At the time I was taking a class on the pornographic mind (don't ask), and had to read a horrible Lesbian pulp 'erotic' novel that I can't even remember the name of.... street dyke or som...more
Alan Hollinghurst is a funny writer. I have read two of his books and have one I want to read (Swimming pool Library) but am reluctant to.
He writes about quite real characters. They are not heroes, they are not made to be good or perfect, but I find him makes them too flawed and I don't like them. In fact I find myself quite disliking the main protagonist of the stories.
For all that< I found this book has really stayed with me, I find myself often remembering it, especi...more
He writes about quite real characters. They are not heroes, they are not made to be good or perfect, but I find him makes them too flawed and I don't like them. In fact I find myself quite disliking the main protagonist of the stories.
For all that< I found this book has really stayed with me, I find myself often remembering it, especi...more
A story of two obsessions: the infatuation between an English teacher and his pupil, and a Belgian museum curator and the works of a recondite artist. The book is extremely well-written, but the complexity of the narrative is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the intricacy aids a sense of mystery, heightening the anticipation about the unknown aspects of Luc and Orst. On the other, the novel occasionally sags, and I found the ending disappointing.
Very hard to decide how to rate this novel - there were moments of intense frustration when I wanted to give up on it because Hollinghurst got so bogged down in details that didn't seem to further the plot (the history of Edgar Orst, for instance), then there would be a passage of such transcendent brilliance that I just had to give it another chance.
Parts of it were wonderful, particularly those focusing on Edward's obsessive behaviour, and the ending, while unresolved, offered up s...more
Parts of it were wonderful, particularly those focusing on Edward's obsessive behaviour, and the ending, while unresolved, offered up s...more
Language tutor goes to Belgium and soon becomes infatuated with one of his
students. This adoration borders on stalking where he spies on him at every
opportunity whilst having affairs with two other men. I do enjoy the
writing style of this author however as to the finer details which have all
but dissipated from memory having read this several weeks ago now. Booker
shortlisted and one I can mark off the list for the 1001 BYMRBYD
students. This adoration borders on stalking where he spies on him at every
opportunity whilst having affairs with two other men. I do enjoy the
writing style of this author however as to the finer details which have all
but dissipated from memory having read this several weeks ago now. Booker
shortlisted and one I can mark off the list for the 1001 BYMRBYD
I found out recently that this is a perfect novel to read on the beach. It's got everything you'd want in a bonkbuster: torrid gay sex, love intrigues, tragic deaths, secrets and a pervy main character obsessed with a 17-year-old boy (to the point of stealing his underwear and stalking him). It's Thomas Mann's Death in Venice and Nabokov's Lolita set in a Flamish town in the mid 90s, brought to life through carefully descriptive, gorgeous writing. The main character is Ed, an English teacher in ...more
This was my first Hollinghurst (although I did see the adaptation of The Line of Beauty, which doesn't really count). The language alternately distracted me and charmed me. As I got further into the book, the suspense really sucked me in. And golly, what a surprising ending! I think I will be looking forward to more from him.
I'm beginning to think that whatever Alan Hollinghurst writes about, he's really meditating on death, or at least permanent loss. Sometimes he shocks, and sometimes he creeps up on the subject. Although some of his themes may not be to everyone's liking, I enjoy each of his books more than the previous.
I'm not normally giving to skim-reading, but this tedious, incoherent, and over-long novel forced me into it. The tale of an English teacher’s obsession w/17-yo student, _The Folding Star_ is nasty-minded and small; a real waste of time & major disappointment from an author who knows better.
The best urological writer in the English Jamesian tradition; this is a teacher's tale of same-sex obsession with a young pupil with a mouth "like a sponge." You won't believe for a second that Edward is actually teaching Luc anything, but the sensuality of it all is top-shelf.
A story about a private tutor who falls in love with one of his students. The main storyline is a bit weak - the tutor is somewhat unsympathetic and the student doesn't really develop as his own character. Woven into the story is piece about a local painter with connections to WWII, the Holocaust, lost love. It hangs together a bit better than this suggests, but only a bit. The writing is very stylish and elegant, but the story is unnecessarily elaborate and only sporadically engaging.
Even if it's beautIfully written, it's a grim, depressing book. But I also remember it was published not long after I'd read the Swimming Pool Library, and I couldn't accept that it really wasn't a sequel.
I like this writer a lot. Lots of explicit gay sex, which can be disconcerting at times because it's very serious literary fiction. I liked The Line of Beauty very much, too.
the sustained elegiac mood, the sensuous language ... for some reason, i consider this book the literary equivalent of listening to st. matthew's passion. even considered naming my humble pied a terre'foldinghurst' in honor :-)
Devastating, beautiful, and destined to be either misunderstood or forgotten. Which is a shame, because it's one of the best novels ever.
Too much like "Death in Venice." Plus, it is a hard book to read during a pleasant summer afternoon.
Matt Frear
added it
In my opinion, Hollinghurst's best book - although they are all great!
I read it the year it came out. First book I recall reading that dealt with gay lives.
Fantastic read! Best gay novel I've ever read with great characters!!!!
I really love his stuff. It makes you think, and wonder, and ponder. . .
This is my favorite of the four novels by Hollinghurst.
Naughty and complex. Very entertaining company.
THE FOLDING STAR didn't move me as much as THE LINE OF BEAUTY. That said, Hollinghurst is perhaps the greatest craftsman of contemporary fiction, and this book is more impressive, from page to page, than just about anything I've read. Whereas Henry James and Evelyn Waugh hover behind THE LINE OF BEAUTY, Proust and Nabokov are the precursors of this one, a novel about obsession, jealousy, and seduction. And man oh man (pun intended), Hollinghurst sure is explicit about sex.
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Alan Hollinghurst is an English novelist, and winner of the 2004 Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty.
He read English at Magdalen College, Oxford graduating in 1975; and subsequently took the further degree of Master of Literature (1979). While at Oxford he shared a house with Andrew Motion, and was awarded the Newdigate Prize for poetry in 1974, the year before Motion.
In th...more
More about Alan Hollinghurst...
He read English at Magdalen College, Oxford graduating in 1975; and subsequently took the further degree of Master of Literature (1979). While at Oxford he shared a house with Andrew Motion, and was awarded the Newdigate Prize for poetry in 1974, the year before Motion.
In th...more
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